Do's an don'ts of powder coating for ES powder coating
- Thread starter Old 454
- Start date
I am a little "picky", so after powder coating I pick up each bullet with sharp pointed tongs and place them on parchment paper for baking. In this way there is no buildup of paint at the base. I also size my bullets before and after coating. They are gas checked, 300 gr., 458 cal.
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Perhaps try this method one time and then you can adapt it to whatever you need, but it's what I use for tall rifle bullets that are wobbly, so I can't move the tray. But the result is what you are after, perfectly sprayed bullets on a clean sheet of foil, so you might just try it on pistol bullets until you find your technique. Spray the bullets as usual with the gun and then using sharpened tongs or tweezers (or I use smooth jawed needle nose pliers from hobby shop) and move the bullets to a clean tray waiting in the (cool) oven. Be aware that when starting from a cool oven, you'll want to bring it up to temp slowly if not using a PID.... that is.... set it to 250 and wait for it to cut off and then to 300 and then 350 and finally 400, and after it cuts off at 400 you can start your timer and cook for the 20 minutes or however long the instructions on the powder say to cook. If you turn a cold oven full of bullets immediately to 400, it will heat at full power all the way until the thermostat (not located in the oven compartment of the machine) reaches 400 and will overshoot to 600+ or so and this can cause bullet slump or even complete melting of some alloys.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?268397-How-I-spray-tall-rifle-boolits
Now, you can always spray them on one tray and move them to a nearby tray and then put THAT tray into the oven, but I found it to be easier to just put them right in the oven and I was less likely to knock any over. You might have a steadier hand and so then can keep rotating freshly sprayed trays into a hot oven and it will go faster.
Good luck!!
Chuck.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?268397-How-I-spray-tall-rifle-boolits
Now, you can always spray them on one tray and move them to a nearby tray and then put THAT tray into the oven, but I found it to be easier to just put them right in the oven and I was less likely to knock any over. You might have a steadier hand and so then can keep rotating freshly sprayed trays into a hot oven and it will go faster.
Good luck!!
Chuck.
Nice coating, where did you get those pointed tongs? I use a set of large tweezers with an angled head that I just dip in the powder before picking up the bullets and setting them on there bases.
The tongs are a Meniscal Clamp used in surgery that some doctor tossed out. I cut off the locking device and drilled a small hole in each end. I filed a finishing nail to fit into the hole but not pass through. Then I sharpened the points. If I am careful when picking up the bullet, after baking it there is no mark visible in the powder coat.
Let's see some pics! glad you got good results using the beads. I coated about 300 pistol bullets today with Smokes clear gloss and only used 1 Teaspoon of powder to coat them all.
It was a bit more humid than I like out in the shop, but I was bored and I wanted to check the temp on my oven with a thermometer I recently got. Turns out the thermostat has a hard time keeping the temp constant, no real wild swings but more than I like. It was a freebee anyways, so I tossed it and got my $5 oven out I got from Goodwill, adjusted it and it held a contestant temp for an hour long test. So I set my timer for 20 min. and cured three batches of 100 bullets in a little over and hour using two trays.
I'm really liking the clear gloss, it gives excellent coverage tumbling and flows great when cured.
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